Home to the Long Island Woman Suffrage Association, Antonia Petrash, Editor

On Wednesday, January 1, 2020 a woman suffrage float, bedecked with thousands of vials of yellow roses will lead the historic Rose Parade in Pasadena, California to celebrate the ratification in 2020 of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting all women throughout the United States the right to vote. The theme of this year’s Rose Parade is The Power of Hope.

The float is sponsored by a wide variety of women’s groups, including the League of Women Voters, the National Women’s History Alliance and the National Federation of Business and Professional women, and will feature a 30 foot replica of the Statue of Liberty, holding a tablet inscribed with the 19th Amendment. Riders will include descendants of prominent suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Ida B. Wells. Behind the float, dressed in white and wearing suffrage sashes will be 100 “out-walkers,” representing each state.

More than half of the $360,000 cost of the float was funded by grass-root efforts and sales of vials of yellow roses decorating the float from individuals who believe in paying tribute to this historic battle for political equality.